Religious
See also: Religious institute (Catholic)Religious—who can be either lay people or clergy—are members of religious institutes, societies in which the members take public vows and live a fraternal life in common. This is a form of consecrated life distinct from other forms, such as that of secular institutes. It is distinct also from forms that do not involve membership of an institute, such as that of consecrated hermits, that of consecrated virgins, and other forms whose approval is reserved to the Holy See.
Religious institutes have historically been subdivided into the categories of orders and congregations.
Read more about this topic: Catholic Church Hierarchy
Famous quotes containing the word religious:
“The chief assertion of religious morality is that white is a colour. Virtue is not the absence of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers; virtue is a vivid and separate thing, like pain or a particular smell.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“When we say “science” we can either mean any manipulation of the inventive and organizing power of the human intellect: or we can mean such an extremely different thing as the religion of science the vulgarized derivative from this pure activity manipulated by a sort of priestcraft into a great religious and political weapon.”
—Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957)
“When holy and devout religious men
Are at their beads, ‘tis much to draw them thence,
So sweet is zealous contemplation.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)